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Whoever might have "won" the presidential debate last week between incumbent Obama and challenger Romney, one clear loser was economic literacy. In their zeal to outdo each other for economic misconceptions, they earned the nicknames "Rombama" and "Obomney."

On the subject of global trade, both flunked Adam Smith 101. In 1776, in his magnum opus, The Wealth of Nations, Smith established the case for free trade. "It is the maxim of every prudent...family never to attempt to make at home what it will cost...more to make than to buy," he wrote. "What is prudence in the conduct of every private family, can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom."

Well, 236 years later, the president of our great kingdom boasted on national TV about having taken measures to ensure that "China was not flooding our domestic market with cheap tires," claiming that he thereby saved "1,000 jobs." He paid his challenger an inadvertent compliment by calling him "the last person who's going to get tough on China." Countering this calumny, Romney promised "tariffs where I believe that they [the Chinese] are taking unfair advantage of our manufacturers."

Remarking on this intellectual race to the bottom, George Mason University economics professor and satirist Donald Boudreaux finds even more potential common ground between the candidates. "If creating more jobs in U.S. tire factories justifies forcing consumers to pay higher prices for tires," writes Boudreaux, "the...administration should also outlaw the sale of used tires (which, like low-priced imports, are 'flooding our domestic market')." The George Mason economist proposes "legislation mandating that all rubber used to make tires be non-vulcanized," because "the resulting decline in tire durability will create even more jobs in U.S. tire factories." Both candidates "should agree that such policies would be positively wonderful for the economy." (Similar satirical observations can be found in Boudreaux's book, Hypocrites & Half-Wits.)

According to Adam Smith, power over trade should be trusted to "no council or senate whatever, and...would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it." Reflecting similar folly and presumption, Obama also boasted about having subsidized wind energy through tax credits, resulting in "thousands of people...in Iowa...in Colorado, who are...creating wind power with good-paying manufacturing jobs."

Defending himself against the charge that he opposes such measures, Romney lamely declared, "I appreciate wind jobs in Iowa and across our country," even though he wouldn't extend the wind-energy tax credits in 2013.

Taxpayers forced to support such corporate welfare might not be so appreciative. Diana Furchtgott-Roth, author of Regulating to Disaster: How Green Jobs Policies Are Damaging America's Economy, cites the folly of financing a "form of energy with no gain. We have a 200-year supply of inexpensive natural gas, which we can use to heat and cool homes at a far lower cost than wind -- or solar."

On the issue of climate change, Bjorn Lomborg, author of Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming, notes that U.S. carbon emissions have been falling, due to the "unprecedented switch to natural gas, which emits 45% less carbon per energy unit." The decrease stems from the development of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." Even some of those workers in Iowa and Colorado might not be too appreciative. From peak employment of 85,000 in '09, wind-energy companies have slashed 10,000 jobs, due in part to competition from natural gas.

On a related issue, both candidates might try reading French economist Frédéric Bastiat's 1845 essay, "Petition of the Manufacturers of Candles...and...of Everything Connected with Lighting." The petitioners complain of the "intolerable competition of a foreign rival" -- namely, the sun -- and demand a law "ordering the shutting up of all windows, skylights, dormer windows..." -- to keep out this unfair competitor.

As a precaution, both candidates might be warned in advance that Bastiat was only kidding.

PRESIDENT OBAMA no doubt mentioned wind-energy jobs in Iowa and Colorado partly because both are "battleground" states, in which the outcome of the November election is considered hard to call. Of nine states commonly listed in this category, the three with the most electoral votes are Florida (29), Ohio (18), and North Carolina (15). Iowa and Colorado have, respectively, six and nine electoral votes.

Based on data released Friday, the average jobless rate in these nine states was 7.7% in September, up from 7.4% in January 2009, when Obama took office. But weighted according to electoral votes, the average unemployment rate was unchanged: 7.9% in both January '09 and September '12.

Either way, these are recessionary rates of joblessness. Then again, the outcome of a presidential election isn't always decided by economics alone.